The world’s a lot scarier than you think it is. Not only are there the horrors you know about… politics, war, poverty, racism… but there are horrors you don’t know about. Literal monsters roam the world, either sent here for a reason or escaped from death, and it’s their job to stop it. Stop it, and keep it from reaching the public so that they can sleep easy at night not knowing that an Ogre could simply walk up and crush their skull in a single hand.

What is this?
This is a game known as Monster of the Week, a game that runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse engine and is based off of shows like Supernatural, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, the X-Files, and the MIB cartoon. I called it Boogieman Buddies because I could literally not think of a better name.

Okay. What’s Powered by the Apocalypse?
Powered by the Apocalypse is a pen and paper RPG system based around the entire table, not just the guy running the game, telling a cool narrative story. It’s very simple to play: You have stats, those stats have modifiers ranging from -1 to +3. You roll 2 six sided dice and add (or subtract) your modifier and the result falls into three ranges: six or less is a failure, ten or more is a total success, and 7 through 9 is a mixed success.

Why Baltimore?
They say “write what you know”, and I’ve been a Maryland resident my entire life. While the plan is to take them all over the state sometimes, most of the time they’ll be staying in the holy trashfire that is Baltimore, mostly because it’s big and recognizable.

Who’s who?I, Colin “kalonZombie” am playing the role of the Keeper, the Keeper being the fancy title they give to the GM. I’m playing all the other people these doofuses aren’t.

Ape is playing Agent Blake Cooper, the Professional. The Professional is a base class that’s all about hunting monsters for a paycheck, and using their connections to their monster hunting agency to help them. As of Session 17, he plays the Initiate, a class combining weapons and magic as they hunt down monsters for their secret order.

Great Joe is playing Jorgen Palsson, the Exile. The Exile is an expanded class about being placed out of time, somehow, but as a result you’re great at swordfighting and maybe knowing some things about monsters that the others don’t due to knowledge being lost to time.

NonEuclideanCat is playing Amber Williams, the Big Game Hunter. The Big Game Hunter is an expanded class about hunting down monsters like some rich assholes hunt down Elephants and Lions and such. It’s… problematic as written, but we’re choosing to ignore the bad bits.

Torpid Typist playing as Ahab, the Summoned. The summoned is all about playing a monster who has been summoned to this world and is said to bring about the apocalypse. Strong, yes. Dangerous, yes. Can fit in easily? Not so much.

Sir Axolotl playing as Anna, the Mad Scientist. The Mad Scientist is all about being… well… a mad scientist. Able to invent things on the fly, and also occasionally working with demons. It’s fine. Trust me.

Scruffy playing as The Mask of Amontillado, the Luchador. The Luchador is all about making your own special move and beating monsters to death with it. And yes, TMoA is a heel. Why wouldn’t they be?

In this update, I discovered that there was a major fuckup in recording where I, the GM, didn’t get recorded, so instead I just choose to recap the episode and to make up for the lack of an episode, I recruit some other friends to do a bonus episode. These characters were supposed to be one-offs, but I ended up liking them so much that I’ve decided they’re going to be a semi-regular feature since I can’t record once a month due to work.

And so I introduce you to the Salem Crew. Seymour kinda mentioned off-handedly that these guys are kinda weird, and I’m glad that these guys, without even needing me to ask them, did that for me. The Salem Crew consists of

Torpid Typist playing as Ahab, the Summoned. The summoned is all about playing a monster who has been summoned to this world and is said to bring about the apocalypse. Strong, yes. Dangerous, yes. Can fit in easily? Not so much.

Sir Axolotl playing as Anna, the Mad Scientist. The Mad Scientist is all about being… well… a mad scientist. Able to invent things on the fly, and also occasionally working with demons. It’s fine. Trust me.

Scruffy playing as The Mask of Amontillado, the Luchador. The Luchador is all about making your own special move and beating monsters to death with it. And yes, TMoA is a heel. Why wouldn’t they be?